9) The Stanford Prison Experiment (opens July 17, limited)
Reviews were strong on this psychological thriller, which screened at Sundance, and with the material on hand, that doesn’t come as much of a surprise. The Stanford Prison Experiment, like all the most chilling thrillers these days, is based on a true story.
In 1971, psychologist Philip Zimbardo (Billy Crudup here) paid university students to take on the roles of either prisoners or guards in an elaborate scenario designed to figure out how individuals responded to socially imposed power dynamics. The results weren’t pretty, with abuses of the prisoners starting almost immediately. It’s an intriguing story, to be sure, and director Kyle Patrick Alvarez is working with a killer cast here, including Ezra Miller, Olivia Thirlby, Nelsan Ellis, Ki Hong Lee, Tye Sheridan, Michael Angarano, Jack Kilmer and Nicholas Braun. That staggering lineup of up-and-comers is alone enough to make The Stanford Prison Experiment worth keeping an eye on.